A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

The church was started in October 1996, led by Pastor Terry Kizer and a group of 13 people who felt the Lord’s leading to plant this church. The first meeting was in the Pastor’s home, but very soon it began meeting in the Haslet Civic Center, believing God was leading in the direction of North Fort Worth known as the Alliance Corridor. The civic center was only temporary, and after much prayer, the church started meeting at Fossil Hill Middle School in February 1997. The first Sunday in the school the Lord gathered 46 people together for worship.

When the church’s average attendance reached the mid 50’s, we began searching for land to purchase and saving money for a down payment. The Pastor worked part-time and was supported by the Red River Valley Baptist Bible Fellowship. The church also received donations from the John Rawlings Foundation and the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship. With the money the church had saved and with the donations, land was secured for future building. In September 1998, the church signed the documents necessary to purchase the land from Hillwood Development. The church purchased 3.428 acres. At that time, that area was the fastest growing area in the state of Texas.

The church then submitted plans to the city for approval of the sanctuary, Sunday school classes, and office space. The plans were approved in February 1999 and the building process began with a Sunday morning ground-breaking ceremony. It was a glorious day for the church family. They met together many times under the old tree for prayer, preaching and, of course, eating. The building was completed and dedicated to the Lord on September 19, 1999 with a house full of people – members, friends and neighbors. Dick Bass, pastor of the sending church, preached the charge of vision for the Alliance Baptist Church family.

The church outgrew the first sanctuary within three years and began the process of building the Phase II facility. The construction of the second phase was completed in November 2003. The church has added staff to keep up with the demands of the growing church family. In the summer of 2007, we built a playground for our kids and the kids used their VBS offerings to put up the fence around the playground. In the Fall of 2007, the church averaged 250 in Sunday morning attendance. Alliance University was introduced in the spring of 2010. God has led the church to simplify and focus on worship, connecting and serving, with a passion for the unchurched. We called Daniel Hessler to be our Worship pastor intern in August 2007. Donnie Walker took over as the Children’s Pastor in August 2008. Drake came on staff as Student pastor in March 2010. Lisa Robinson joined the staff as the Pastor’s assistant in April 2010.

We have many families out of Alliance serving around the world. Mike and Caroline Tester are serving in Hong Kong and Scott and Gloria Brown are serving in Mexico City. Jonathan and Patti Mohler are serving in Kenya, Africa. We added Jon and Julie Groves to our church family in early 2007. They travel the country in evangelism. Brad and Mindy Morrow, served at Alliance for a total of seven years, and will be departing to the mission field of Curacao in May. Chris and April Willis have started Discovery Church in Boston, MA. Danny and Claudia Morrow are now pastor and wife of Fundamental Baptist Church in Springtown, Texas. Brian and Betsy Hamlin are faithful members of Alliance and Brian serves as Chaplin for the Keller Police Department, as an extension of Alliance’s ministry. Stanley and Barbara Yachnovich served in Taiwan as missionaries for almost 50 years, and have been members here since 1998. In addition to these families, we also help support many other missionary endeavors around the world. There are several students currently training for ministry. We have several students in Bible College. Daniel Hessler is studying at Dallas Baptist University and is currently a senior there. Drake Elkins is a junior at DBU. They both are serving on the Alliance staff.

Last year, we remodeled the Children’s auditorium to add SS space for children, nursery, and adults. We added leadership structure in 2008 that has helped facilitate growth. We have enlarged the auditorium and we have increased the seating capacity over 100. Our next endeavor is to put in Sunday School and office space in our Fellowship Hall. We have a great staff that works very well together and there is a spirit of revival, especially since May of 2009. God has sent many new people to Alliance over the last year. It is exciting to see change!

An architect was employed and has drawn the master plan for the facilities. The plans for the Elementary Education building and auditorium are being prepared for future growth.

Written by Pastor Terry Kizer
Revised April 22, 2010